Baseball: L-S opens season with win

After defeating DCL Large foe Westford in its season opener and then Plymouth North, the L-S baseball team fell to St. John’s Prep in a matchup of state powers.

Jared Keene @jkeene11

Will Fletcher pitched two innings of hitless relief with three strikeouts to get the victory, and Rylan Forester drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth with a sacrifice fly as Lincoln-Sudbury opened the season by defeating Westford 6-3 in a Dual County League Large game on Tuesday, April 11.

Justin Vandervelden started and allowed three unearned runs on five hits before leaving after the fifth inning with the game tied 3-3.

Forester worked an 11-pitch at-bat before making it 4-3 in the sixth. The Warriors added two more runs in the inning.

Ethan McCullough went 1-for-2 with a double, RBI and run, Deven Pathak went 2-for-3 with a run and RBI, James Dillon went 2-for-4, and Jack McKeon went 1-for-3 with a run.

The Warriors followed the opening win by defeating Plymouth North 8-5 last Saturday night in a non-league game.

On Monday morning, L-S played St. John’s Prep.

It's entirely possible that with the talent each possesses this year, L-S and St. John's Prep could very well end up meeting in the Super 8 — if both are selected — or the Division 1 North sectional.

But with the season still relatively young, there's still plenty of baseball to be played in the regular season before they can start thinking too much about the postseason. The two powerhouses got a taste of each other when they squared off in a key non-league tilt.

The Warriors, playing in just their third game because of weather and field conditions, sent hard-throwing junior ace Ryan Cusick — a Wake Forest commit — to the mound in hopes of shutting down a potent Eagles lineup that features UConn commit Mike Yarin, among others. And Cusick did his part over six strong innings, but on this day, was outdueled by Prep's Casey Bussone, who tossed a complete game shutout in the Eagles 5-0 win at L-S.

"It's tough to give up runs the way that we gave up runs today," Warriors coach Matt Wentworth said after his team suffered its first loss and now sits at 2-1. "We gave up two on passed balls, one that got away from out (relief) pitcher, and then two on a bloop to center field that my centerfielder just couldn't get to.

"But we took a lot of positive things from this game. We pitched very well, we played solid defense, and we had runners in scoring position in four of seven innings."

"This is only our third game," added Wentworth. "We were one hit away from scoring two or three runs and that's a really encouraging sign for me this early in the season against an opponent of that caliber."

Cusick, who stands 6-foot-4 and can touch the low 90's with his four-seam fastball, put on an impressive showing in his first start of the season.

By establishing both his four-seam and two-seam fastballs early, he was able to then mix in his offspeed stuff to keep Prep off balance. Cusick also worked all parts of the plate: high, low, inside, and outside, and was definitely unfazed by throwing against the Eagles lineup. Overall, he allowed one run on four hits with three walks and a whopping 14 strikeouts, with a majority of those coming on high fastballs.

"I was just focusing on pounding strikes," Cusick said. "And once I established the fastball, I was just trying to work off my changeup and slider, which worked in situations, but I was primarily just pounding the four-seam and two-seam. Towards the later innings, I was trying to have them put the ball in play, but I ended up going with just throwing it by them the whole game."

Cusick dominated the first two innings, going six-up, six-down with five strikeouts, including striking out Prep's first three hitters in the first. But in the third, the Eagles were able to manufacture a run to grab the lead.

With one out, Cusick allowed a single to No. 8 hitter Joe Muzio, who had two hits off him. With Alex Lane up, Muzio stole second before Cusick struck out Lane for the second out. Leadoff hitter Chris Francoeur then hit a grounder to third, but James Dillon's throw was a bit off, pulling Jack Carlson off the first base bag and Muzio took third on the play. Then, with Yarin up, Muzio came scampering home on a passed ball for the 1-0 lead. It ended up being a 26-pitch inning for Cusick.

"Obviously, I wanted to try and keep the pitch count down so I could try to finish up the game," Cusick said. "I went through 108, which is not what we intended on, but all I could ask for of my fielders was to limit the errors and they limited it to one that inning. I know that play would've been an out, but they also made a bunch of good plays behind me."

That run was all Bussone needed.

The senior, who was consistently throwing strikes with both his fastball and secondary pitches, allowed just five hits, walked one, and notched six strikeouts. L-S was able to put runners in scoring position in the first, third, fourth, and seventh innings, but Bussone was able to bear down and keep the Warriors from scoring.

"He stays ahead of batters with strikes, he's got a great slider, and he's just a heady player," Eagles coach Dan Letarte said. "He's pitching to contact, he's a senior leader, and it's good to rely on him against another very good team and against another brilliant pitcher."